]]>Consumers and business users alike are increasingly making transactions via mobile devices, and the growing importance of this channel is spurring companies to shift resources towards mobility initiatives.

]]>Building compelling applications is a complicated task, and maintaining that application’s appeal over time is even more daunting. Here’s what B2C companies and other businesses should know when doing this.

]]>There are hundreds of millions of smartphones in the U.S. but just a small portion use apps to pay for things. That’s despite the efforts of web payment giants like PayPal and the ubiquitous Google, who both operate mobile payment platforms that are still looking for better adoption.

Onavo Insights gathered data about payment app use in the U.S. from several million iOS and Android users of the company’s mobile data utility apps. The company shared with us what it found out about how mobile payments apps and platforms have grown in the U.S. over the last year. It’s not a complete picture, but it gives a sense of how these apps are faring among smartphone users.

Here is the reach of what Onavo found to be the most-used mobile payments apps in use in the U.S.:

And here are their retention rates among the people who’ve tried them:

Things to note:

Starbucks is the clear winner. But its app is not only used for payments — it is used to download free songs and apps, find stores and see menus as well.

Still, people are spending money in the app — of the $500 million spent through mobile apps last year in the U.S., the “vast majority” was through Starbucks mobile cards, according to earlier data shared by Berg Insights.

Venmo may have a small audience, but it’s growing (doubled use in June) and the audience is showing loyalty. And that audience is mostly young people, according to Onavo. It stands out from other payment apps, like Starbucks and PayPal, which are most popular among users between 25 and 34.

Mobile payment use is higher among men for all the apps listed, except for Starbucks, where women make up 54 percent of users. Square Wallet has the lowest ratio of female users at 21 percent.

The biggest carrier-advocated mobile payments platform has yet to launch nationwide: Isis will start rolling out to all U.S. locations later this year and be available on multiple mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone. That will be one to watch.

]]>Sometimes, the only way to get connected is via coffee shop Wi-Fi. And for many people across the U.S., the nearest Wi-Fi-enabled cafe is a Starbucks.

But Starbucks is notorious for its spotty internet connections. It’s always free, but the challenge of getting a connection while waiting for a Frappuccino means many people don’t even try, much less camp out the way that many customers do at indie establishments.

But that may be about to change, as Google announced that it would be boosting the Wi-Fi in all 7,000 company-operated Starbucks stores over the next 18 months. The search giant promises connection speeds up to 10 times faster than what they are now, and 100 times faster in Google Fiber cities across America. Starting in August, each free Wi-Fi connection will be available under the same name “Google Starbucks.”

This isn’t the first time Google has rolled out fast free Wi-Fi. The company has finally moved forward with plans to bring Wi-Fi to San Francisco parks, eight years after proposing the idea to the city. With an expanding portfolio of Google Fiber cities and plenty of municipal initiatives under its belt, Google’s strategic partnership with Starbucks will finally bring more internet to people across the country.

]]>After trialing wireless charging stations in Boston, Starbucks is expanding the program to select locations in Silicon Valley. Before you get too excited by the prospect of free device juice with your morning latte, make sure you check which wireless charging standard your phone or tablet uses.

Starbucks is using wireless technology based on the PMA, or Power Matters Alliance, standard. That makes sense when you read this brief bit from the PMA “About Us” page:

“The PMA’s agenda is spearheaded by like-minded leaders of industry and government, including representatives from Procter & Gamble, Google, Starbucks, AT&T, Powermat Technologies and the US Department of Energy.”

Here’s the rub: Most of the recent devices that support wireless charging don’t use the PMA standard. Instead, they support Qi, an older standard. Need some examples of Qi-supported devices? The new Nexus 7 tablet, HTC Droid DNA, Samsung’s Galaxy S 4, Nokia’s Lumia 928, and Google’s Nexus 4 smartphone all support Qi, meaning you can’t recharge them wirelessly at participating Starbucks locations.

Apple’s iPhone doesn’t natively support any kind of wireless charging, but Duracell Powermat, a key member of the PMA, does sell cases that add the charging capability. The company also sells a similar add-on for the Galaxy S 3. But when it comes to devices that natively support wireless charging, I can’t think of one that works with the PMA standard yet.

]]>We still have no leader in mobile payments, but when it comes to digital gift cards Apple’s Passbook is doing a decent job of making its case with big-name retailers — many of whom were somewhat skeptical of its utility when Passbook was first went live in fall 2012.

CashStar, which makes digital gift cards for several dozen big name brand retailers including Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Sephora, Williams-Sonoma, Gap, Best Buy and others, has good insight into how some of the biggest retail brands are faring with Apple’s digital wallet. And today, nearly 10 months since Passbook’s launch, CashStar released data claiming that about one-third of all digital gift cards that are sent to someone are opened on a smartphone, two-thirds of which are iOS 6 devices. About 30 percent of those are actually added to the Passbook app.

Gift cards, of course, are not the only feature of Passbook. The app is intended to be a repository for anything that would be kept in a wallet, including airline and train tickets, coupons, rewards cards, entertainment passes and, yes, gift cards.

Most major airlines have embraced Passbook, as have many movie theaters, ticket companies and some sports leagues. While several big brands like Starbucks and Sephora were on board with Passbook at launch, many other big retailers “weren’t sure what would happen at first,” CashStar VP of Marketing Gene Cornfield told me on Tuesday. “Some took a wait-and-see approach.” But that is very much changing, for several reasons.

Users are starting to understand Passbook: Apple didn’t make it easy to figure out how to use Passbook at first. But, a few months later, it made some important changes. And now, CashStar says every “two to three months” the percentage of digital gift cards added to Passbook is doubling.

People are actually spending money in Passbook: Without being more specific, CashStar says “millions of dollars” in gift cards have been added to Passbook since it debuted. Though the number of users of Passbook gift cards is still in the “hundreds of thousands.”

Location-based reminders: Lost, left at home, or forgotten gift cards don’t do retailers any good — they recognize revenue dollars from gift cards once they’re redeemed. And it turns out that the location-based alerts built into Passbook are helping them out here.”The geo-fenced reminder of when you’re near a store … is a great prompt for a consumer to spend the balance” of a Passbook gift card,” Cornfield said. “Retailers like it because it brings consumers in the store.” Digital gift cards that get added to Passbook, “with reminders, is actually increasing the redemption velocity even more.”

Training consumers for true digital payments: A lot of the gift cards added to Passbook are indeed gifts. But plenty are cards that customers load for themselves to use basically like money: think Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts cards that are reloaded each month as a quick method to buy coffee with a phone.

Interestingly, if you ask customers if they’d be interested in a mobile payment service, like hooking up a credit card or bank account to a mobile device, they tend to be skeptical and cite security concerns.

“We’re seeing very little if any resistance to putting gift cards, which are as good as cash, on a mobile device,” said Cornfield. People pay with a Starbucks digital gift card 4.5 million times a week — that’s a lot of coffee and a lot of casual use of phones as a payment device. It’s a good way of familiarizing users with the concept of paying by phone.

No one has emerged as a leader in mobile payments, though there are plenty of groups vying for it. But with the software that’s catching on, millions of devices in people’s hands, 575 million credit card accounts, and growing momentum with retailers, Apple is positioning itself quite carefully to be that leader one day — should it want to.

This post was corrected on 6/26 to note that CashStar said hundreds of thousands of Passbook users are using gift cards, not tens of thousands, as previously stated.

]]>Intense global competition and changing market structures are forcing companies to engage in much more innovation activity. At the same time they are having to address much narrower markets because of the long tail effect. That creates the apparent paradox of broader innovation and narrower innovation. This report defines the terms of the new innovation debate, discusses the key drivers of innovation for large companies, and offers advice on how to manage a more complex process.

]]>Picking up a free app with your morning coffee is about to change, as coffee giant Starbucks announced it’s doing away with redemption cards effective Wednesday. Instead, it’s opting to integrate the long-running “Pick of the Week” promotion directly into its free iOS app.

This switch to digital will see the removal of the cards typically found near cash registers, instead swapping the lengthy codes for a paperless solution. Customers will now need to either connect to the complimentary in-store Wi-Fi, or fire up the Starbucks app and follow the on-screen prompts to download their latest freebie.

Speaking to CNET, Starbucks Chief Digital Officer Adam Brotman explained that the action is a “reflection of Starbucks and Apple working together to strengthen the relationship for customers.” Brotman stated that the company’s apps are now used actively by more than 10 million users, adding that this latest move is just another step in their plan to “integrate more things” into their mobile offering.

To mark the move away from redemption codes the coffee chain is currently giving away for free Rovio’s Angry Birds Star Wars, usually priced at 99 cents.

The established Pick of the Week promotion has presented a great way to get paid apps into the hands of a broad range of customers, which is not only good for Apple as a way promote iOS apps, but also good for Starbucks who gets to give out a freebie with its cup of joe.

Now admittedly, Starbucks choosing to swap the tried-and-tested paper cards for direct downloads is a good move for those regular, more savvy users of the promotion (let alone the environment). Yet it could be argued that the removal of those physical, tangible cards may result in a drop in downloads. Customers could just forget to fire up the app and grab the freebie — the little cards served as a solid call-to-action to at least look at the latest promo item. Let’s hope Starbucks keep some form of in-store promo in place for the downloads, or they may just get forgotten about.